Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.

30 August 2009

Searching for books- Google Wonder Wheel

Graphic presentations of search results are not new, but sometimes they can lead you down new paths just because of the way the search results are presented. I blogged earlier this year about finding new authors through Literature maps. I blogged also about the graphic search engine that Encompass provides.

Google Wonder Wheel is really a variant of that style of searching..

To find Google wonder wheel go to www.google.com, type in the topic you’d like to search for and then click on Show Options.

In the left hand column you will find the Wonder Wheel option.

Above is the wonder wheel I obtained when I searched for ‘crime fiction Australia’.

I clicked on the phryne fisher link and got the wheel on the left. What makes it impressive, is that it actually gives you books to look for.

What is really impressive is that you can then click on one of the links in the wheel and get to the next level in the search.

On the right hand side of the page Google is constantly generating a list of web page links. Very impressive.

The image below is a bit fuzzy, but if you click on it you'll see it in bigger size. The circle at the bottom is where I started, then you can see the phryne fisher search, and then I clicked on the castlemaine murders.

The search is not without drawbacks, and as I tested it, it threw up irrelevant items, but that is where the user's critical judgement comes in.